Top Chef Season 4

[Claudia Greco]

The Freshman! Could've taken some chicken and dressed it up to be some rare species only the rich and famous would dare eat! 

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"Fresh turkey and Virginia ham . . .[rolled into] Hawaiian tigerfish!" (with a basil cream sauce.) "If Schleigel filets - we know he likes to filet - he can get 350 servings from one dragon . . ."

[KristiB50]

Blazing Saddles Beans anyone?

[dockhl]

OK, get ready for tonight.

Apparently there are a few versions of the Top Chef Drinking Game......

Two to sample:

TCDG #1

TCDG #2

I'm not sure which I prefer

[ninetofive]

Anyone remember the fantasy scene in Dumb & Dumber? Jim Carrey on the couch, igniting his gas for the assembled party guests?

Definitely something flambeed.

[pax]

Okay, the mint comment got my brain spinning about Monty Python movies.

Life of Brian:

Mock ______ Soup

Holy Grail:

Anything with rabbit, as long as it was spicy.

Suab in a coconut foam.

I am going to stop now. If I continue...

well, it's just going to involve a chocolate-covered exploding albatross and that can't be good.

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Thank you. That made my day.

[KristiB50]

Okay, the mint comment got my brain spinning about Monty Python movies.

Life of Brian:

Mock ______ Soup

Holy Grail:

Anything with rabbit, as long as it was spicy.

Squab in a coconut foam.

I am going to stop now. If I continue...

well, it's just going to involve a chocolate-covered exploding albatross and that can't be good.

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Thank you. That made my day.

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Nancy's commentary always cracks me up

Edited April 10, 2008 by KristiB50 (log)

[KristiB50]

I really have to watch last nights episode again because I could have sworn Antonia was opposed to the soup.

Richard acting surprised at the judges table when he knew there were scales and the fish was mushy cracked me up. He's not a good actor.

I also thought it was funny that Lisa won for bacon. Bacon rules!!

And the fights at the end? I thought it seemed odd they happened at the same time. Or maybe it was Bravo's editing. Anyway it was choppy and weird.

And why was Dale holding his crotch while he was yelling at Lisa?

Edited April 10, 2008 by KristiB50 (log)

[nliedel]

Jennifer has got to get a grip on her temper. I understand she wanted Zoi to win, but I thought she was going to birth a brick and hurl it a Padma's head last night. Dale cracks me up. I don't hate him, yet.

That turd, Ryan has me frothing at the mouth. He's just a disrespectful dork, although I've not found any reference to him working for Ming. Which surprised me, because I suspect he's gone into a lot of kitchens with that swagger and just pissed off the whole line, most of the waitstaff, (except a random waitron he was attracted to) and all of the bra folk with his, "I'm perfect and above this food you cook here," attitude. I've dated too many men like him to not see the pattern now. Wish I'd seen it twenty years ago.

Dear and wonderful Richard. My favorite since, Sam... how could you do this to me? How could you break my heart like that? Mushy, scaly salmon? and you DEFENDED IT? Oh my. I feel so let down. Sort of like the time my mom made me eat a sandwich, then told me it was tongue. Which I like now, but I was five then.

The duck. How do you cook and not know to score the skin of your duck? It's in my, How to Prep Food, book that I keep in my kitchen. Once again, I'm a mediocre cooking mom from Michigan. If I know that, any moron who works with proteins should know that.

No seasoning. Do they not watch the show before they audition?

The winning dish did look very yummy though. Very yummy indeed.

Now can I make fun of people I can never cook as well as, by coming up with dishes that better fit the elements they got? Please!

[nliedel]

I really have to watch last nights episode again because I could have sworn Antonia was  opposed to the soup.

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Me too. I'm going to watch it again this morning. I really remember her flat out refusing.

[RAHiggins1]

I really have to watch last nights episode again because I could have sworn Antonia was  opposed to the soup.

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Me too. I'm going to watch it again this morning. I really remember her flat out refusing.

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Yes, she absolutely railed against it. Which is odd because I think if you were to foam up a truffled butternut squash soup and garnished with a hazelnut cream on top would scream "earth".

[Vinotas]

I agree, Richard screwed up but his performance until now was excellent. Zoi has been weak since Day One, and she seemed to be on the losing team far too many times. As Scott says, she was warned about under-seasoning and still defended her bland dish. She also annoyed me by always seeming to be on the edge of tears during Judge's Table.

And what was up with the fight at the end? As someone above said, the editing seemed choppy.

Cheers!

[Reignking]

I've had Richard's salmon sous vide (with smoked mayo), and it was excellent. Other than the scales, I wonder what happened with the cooking of the fish...

He said he wasn't comfortable cooking for that many -- wouldn't it be difficult to maintain the right temperature for the bath?

[BryanZ]

That was a lot of drunk people at the end. Must've been in the stew tank for a while. Oh well. Pointless drunken bitching.

Salmon CSV at <45C (they were cooking at 43.8 in the one shot of the bath) is somewhat strange texturally and not for everyone. I do agree it is a bit mushy and if it's had time to cool a bit kind of congeals unappetizingly. For a banquet like that I would've gone to like 48C, but that's me. They also should've considered taking the skin off before cooking. Blais dodged a bullet there.

No more faux caviar. You did it three times now, stop.

[Zeemanb]

And why was Dale holding his crotch while he was yelling at Lisa?

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That was....strange (almost as strange as Spike's new Greek Fisherman meets Goober from Mayberry hat). I was half expecting Dale to bust out into some "Whoomp! There It Is!" when the crotch-cupping began...which actually would have been some great television.

Zoi started in with the waterworks pretty quickly, I wonder how much we missed with the editing.

If I were Spike I'd invest in some kevlar.....hell hath no fury like a lesbian scorned.

Edited April 10, 2008 by Zeemanb (log)

[tmgrobyn]

Smoke and caviar! I know Richard has more up his sleeve and I think that's why he got a by from the judges. They say that it is not a cumulative scoring system, but I do think it must come into play at some point.

Zoi's interview says it all. She doesn't think it was her. She thinks it was all an agenda by the judges. Wow. Serve unseasoned food day in and day out, don't listen to anyone who offers critical advice, and then blame your failures on a hidden agenda to keep you from being the best. Wow. She said they ate her food without really knowing who she is. hmmmm. I don't know about the rest of you, but I rarely know the chef's, whose food I eat, very well.

All in all a good episode, but man scales whoa. Ick. And then Dale. He was pissed. He doesn't like Lisa, and he's not going to let her bring him down. Looks like she succeeded in altering his perception for a bit, well, and alcohol played a part it would seem. I would like to try that dish, it looked awesome!

[Reignking]

I didn't like seeing salmon or sous vide again, either, but given the water theme, it was the perfect match. Perhaps they could've been a bit more creative with the accompaniments.

[Ndy]

And why was Dale holding his crotch while he was yelling at Lisa?

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I was wondering the same thing!

[malarkey]

That whole yelling thing at the end was really disjointed. I think they desparately wanted to air it, and couldn't figure out where to put it.

Why the F was he yelling? They WON the challenge, as a team. Yes, Lisa's a whiner, but it was her idea to do Asian, and Dale was fighting that all the way.

[prasantrin]

And why was Dale holding his crotch while he was yelling at Lisa?

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I was wondering the same thing!

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Maybe he drank so much that he really had to pee, but the producers wouldn't let him leave until he had finished yelling at Lisa. Good TV trumps bathroom breaks, after all.

[Slamdunkpro]

There is a poster on another board I frequent who says (I know, I know) that he knows Dale pretty well, and that Dale can be a pretty angry drunk. FWIW.

[Dignan]

As I recall, Antonia was definately against the soup... but she dropped in at least one "I'll do it if that's what you guys want to do, but..." during the planning discussions. So I think she's right that she said she'd do it, but she was pretty set against it.

And right before Dale goes of, as it was edited, he said something-that-I-couldn't-catch to someone-I-couldn't-tell-who-but-it-was-probably-either-Spike-or-Antonia, and Lisa told him something along the lines of "You're not helping." I'd like to imagine that it was more like "Shut up, you're not helping," because that would be more suitable to fuse a crotch grabbing rant like we saw.

Shortly before that she was doing a thing that I see some of these shlubs do when they manage to win a challenge and it annoys the hell out of me. The folks with the chopping block POVs are arguing over events, and the challenge winner decides that, by dint of their win, they are now sage and proven chefs and may dispense their wisdom to those less fortunate shortorder cooks in the room. With Dale already weary of her in general, and specifically pissed about her winning a trip to Italy for makin' bacon (and what, the pickled chilis were just shouting, "Trip to Italy"?), I bet he was really grinding his teeth before he blew up.

Edited April 11, 2008 by Dignan (log)

[cathrynapple]

I still don't understand why, during the fight, Dale randomly insulted Zoe's girlfriend. (I'm sorry, I can't remember her name right now.) It must have been the editing, because the group of us watchign were all like, "huh? why did he say that?"

[Dignan]

I still don't understand why, during the fight, Dale randomly insulted Zoe's girlfriend. (I'm sorry, I can't remember her name right now.) It must have been the editing, because the group of us watchign were all like, "huh? why did he say that?"

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I just watched parts of it again.

Spike and Antonia are doing their arguing about the soup (and Antonia is correct, she did technically say that she would do the soup, and at the time Spike said something along the lines of "Now you got me scared that it's not enough.")

The faux hawk girlfriend left behind says to Spike "You just put your bleep team mate in the ground."

Spike replies "So bleep what?"

FHGLB says, in a brilliant bit of repartee, "Yeah, so, so bleep what." She's now officially overwrought at the loss of Zoi. She apparently believes that what Padma actually says to the losers is "Please pack your knives and die."

At this point Dale says "That's weak bleep something." It's not entirely clear that he's talking to FHGLB, who anyway needs to do a little MYOB at this point IMHO.

Lisa says to Dale "Something something something you're just making it worse."

Spike continues to practice his Dale Carnegie.

Back to Dale who says, I'm pretty sure to Lisa, "That was not the person that something something something." The end is drowned out by the "bleep" in FHGLB's "Bullbleep!"

Then his crotchgrabbin'.

[dockhl]

Aren't you glad we can watch these over and over?

[Dieck]

I've had Richard's salmon sous vide (with smoked mayo), and it was excellent.  Other than the scales, I wonder what happened with the cooking of the fish...

He said he wasn't comfortable cooking for that many -- wouldn't it be difficult to maintain the right temperature for the bath?

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I heard the fishmonger tell Richard that the Coho salmon was fresh ... Richard said they used "wild salmon," so I'm betting they used the Coho.

I grew up just north of Chicago, eating Coho salmon from Lake Michigan. I haven't eaten Coho in years, but I recall it being a very soft, somewhat watery fish. I hated it (and I didn't hate all fish -- I loved Lake Perch and Whitefish from the same area).

I've been wondering ... could it be that Richard was used to working with a different kind of salmon that had a firmer texture? Your having eaten his salmon sous vide and liked it makes my hunch a little stronger.

Even though the scaly fish was icky, I still think they picked the right person to go. She had never appeared to be one of the stronger contestants. Did she really think those judges didn't know what they are talking about? She should have taken the criticism and learned from the experience, instead of whining and making excuses.